Central gets volleyball split in Illinois tourney

Central College

JACKSONVILLE, ILL.— For the third straight weekend, the Central College volleyball team battled some inconsistency and split a pair of first-day tournament matches

Friday the Dutch (8-3) defeated Monmouth (Ill.) 25-20, 25-18, 25-16 but stumbled against Lakeland (Wis.) 25-22, 25-18, 25-22.

Outside hitter Shantell Gish (senior, Cedar Rapids, Prairie HS) was dominant against Monmouth (4-5), with 12 kills and a steamy .647 attack percentage. Middle hitter Hannah Welter (senior, Lincoln, Neb., Southwest HS) had seven kills and hit .455 while outside hitter Mollie Mason (freshman, Iowa City, West HS) and middle hitter Emily McDonald (freshman, Orange City, MOC-Floyd Valley HS) each had six kills. Setter Madison Maddox (sophomore, Tulsa, Okla., Bishop Kelley HS) had 21 assists and defensive specialist Tori Zempel (junior, La Porte City, Union HS) had 12 digs.

Statistics were not yet available from the second match, which saw Lakeland improve to 5-7.

Culver-Stockton (7-2) scored a pair of sweeps Friday over Rockford and Anderson (Ind.) and is riding a six-match win streak. Rockford (6-6) also tumbled in five sets against host Illinois College.

Completes the weekend tourney play Saturday, meeting Rockford (Ill.) at 10 a.m. and Culver-Stockton (Mo.) at noon.